Many thanks to the Food 52 Head Recipe Tester for choosing this recipe and for calling 52 Scoops “a little crazy”. I will continue to strive to create both classic and crazily unusual ice cream recipes!

Last week, I posted a recipe for Matcha Ice Cream, and the week before that, Black Sesame Ice Cream. It would only make sense that I complete the trilogy of common Japanese ice cream flavours with Mango Ice Cream. I will throw in a Southeast Asian twist though: chili sea salt.

In Southeast Asia, it is quite common to eat tropical fruit such as mango, papaya, guava, pomelo, and pineapple dipped in chili salt as a snack. This may sound rather bizarre, but it’s tasty, refreshing, and rather addictive. When I was travelling in Vietnam last year, mango and chili salt quickly emerged as my favourite combination, and I would seek out a mango vendor every day. Women would expertly peel and cut mangoes, tuck the slices into a plastic bag, and toss in a tiny bag of chili salt for my dipping pleasure.

Use Ataulfo mangoes for this recipe to yield the most lusciously smooth mango ice cream you’ll ever taste. With a gentle sprinkling of chili sea salt — absolutely divine!!!

Happy Easter! This calls for a special Easter ice cream recipe — something that goes beyond crushing a bag of Cadbury mini eggs and mixing them into vanilla ice cream (though that would probably be pretty tasty too). Seeing that my dad has always been a fan of hot cross buns, I thought I’d try replicating the taste of this bakery treat in ice cream format for Easter this year.

Hot cross buns at Cobbs Bakery at Lonsdale Quay Market

Hot cross buns are sweet, mildly spicy buns that are studded with currents and raisins and marked with a symbolic cross. They’re an Easter tradition and typically served on Good Friday. I think I’ve developed an ice cream recipe that hits just the right combination of spices, flavouring, and dried fruit. Be sure to use the best quality spices and dried fruit you can find. If you’re buying bulk from a grocery store, make sure their bulk products have a high turnover for greatest freshness — yes, you *can* taste the difference!

Note: After three weeks of using up to 50% whipping cream for the dairy portion of the custard base, I’m switching over to using 100% half-and-half. While whipping cream does result in an ultra-premium taste and increases the scoopability of the ice cream, I’m convinced that continued high usage will wreak havoc on my waistline, even if I use Baby Donvier and make smaller portions! Don’t worry, using half-and-half does not significantly affect taste. In fact, you might also want to experiment further and cut the half-and-half with some milk.